Thursday, April 16, 2015

More Bad News for Dean Skelos ! --- And Marty Golden Too ?

At this time, it is not clear whether State Senator Martin Golden has been served with a Federal Subpoena in connection with the investigation of NYS Senate Majority Leader Skelos by U.S. Attorney Bharara

--- The real bad news will be if Marty has NOT BEEN subpoenaed by Bharara in this particular sweep

The New Tork Times, and other newspaper and media outlets have announced that U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's invetigations and prosecutions of New York State legislators is pushing forward -- apace. And now, Bharara has subpoenaed several additional state senators.

THE NY TIMES REPORT

According to the report in the Times, "Federal prosecutors have begun presenting evidence to a grand jury considering a case against the leader of the New York State Senate, Dean G. Skelos of Long Island, and his son, according to people with knowledge of the matter. *** Investigators have served a number of subpoenas in recent weeks, including several to state senators on Long Island, and federal prosecutors have interviewed people who have had dealings with Adam Skelos, the Republican senator’s son...." (See "Dean Skelos, New York Senate Leader, and His Son Are Said to Be Focus of Corruption Inquiry" by William K. Rashbaum, Susanne Craig & Thomas Kaplan, 4/15/15, NY Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/nyregion/dean-skelos-new-york-senate-leader-and-his-son-are-said-to-be-focus-of-federal-inquiry.html]).

In a brief retrospective the Timesmen note that "...The investigation is being conducted by the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, who has embarked on an assault against graft and other political misdeeds in Albany, describing the capital as a “caldron of corruption.... Glenwood Management, one of the state’s largest campaign donors, also surfaced in the criminal case against Mr. Silver, who is accused of steering Glenwood and another developer to a law firm that gave him a cut of their fees. Glenwood has not been accused of wrongdoing in the Silver case or in the investigation involving the Skeloses.... The case against Mr. Silver and the investigation of Mr. Skelos grew in some measure out of the Moreland Commission, an anticorruption panel that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo created in 2013. The governor, a Democrat, abruptly disbanded the panel last year as part of a budget deal he negotiated in large part with Mr. Skelos and Mr. Silver; Mr. Bharara’s office then opened a criminal inquiry into the shutdown...."

THE NY POST'S TAKE ON THE INVESTIGATION

In its coverage of the same story, the New York Post had this to say about all of it: "The US attorney has been on a crusade since Gov. Andrew Cuomo disbanded the Moreland Commission, an anticorruption panel that the governor himself created in July 2013. *** The commission was looking into possible misdeeds by former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who was indicted in February for allegedly lining his pockets with nearly $4 million in bribes and kickbacks in a stunning abuse of power dating to at least 2000. *** His arrest capped a secret grand jury probe spearheaded by Bharara. *** Speaking at a Fordham Law School forum last month, the ambitious US attorney said he was devoted to cleaning up Albany. *** 'Archimedes said to move Earth itself, all he needed was a long enough lever and a place to stand,' Bharara said. 'To put it blunter, in New York terms: If we could clean up Times Square, can we really not clean up Albany?'..." (See "State Senate boss Dean Skelos eyed in corruption case" by Rich Calder, Jamie Schram & Joe Tacopino, 4/16/15, NY Post [http://nypost.com/2015/04/16/state-senate-boss-dean-skelos-eyed-in-corruption-case/]).

IS MARTY GOLDEN A "TARGET" OF "THIS" INVESTIGATION ?

In the moment, it is not known whether Brooklyn's only Republican State Senator, Martin Golden, has been subpoenaed by the U.S. Attorney's office in this particular case. What is known is that Marty Golden has completely lawyered-up because of the probes by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
If State Senator Golden has not been subpoenaed along with the several other state senators so-subpoenaed, that would probably be a very bad sign for Golden, his staff and his supporters. Not receiving a subpoena could very well mean that Golden is being insulated because he to is a "target of the investigation."

The prominent mention of "...Glenwood Management..." and "...the Moreland Commission ..." in all of the current news stories has to be especially upsetting to the Golden folks. State Senator Golden is tightly tied into both. "... Glenwood" was one of the principal beneficiaries of 421-a tax legislation that was put in by Golden in an overnight session a couple of years ago; and Golden was specifically mentioned in the preliminary "...Moreland Commission" report that U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is using as a road map for his investigations.

23 comments:

Yesterday, Marty Golden was gathering a rump group of Brooklyn GOP leaders to work for Donovan away from Craig Eaton and the regular Brooklyn GOP; and today, the same people are heading for cover while the roof falls in all around the Golden one and his band of hangers-on.

Future uses of the Bay Ridge Manor site will have to await the resolution of the Marty Golden problems. The Manor needs additional onsite parking, but that can't be done because of Marty's more land problem.

RESPONSE: THE "MAKE IT LOOK LIKE THERE'S A DEFENSE TO WHAT I POSTED WHEN THERE AIN'T" EDITION

--- OR THE "JUST SET UP A STRAW MAN TO KNOCK IT DOWN" EDITION

LOOK CLOSELY AT THE TWO COMMENTS ABOVE: "ANONYMOUS...7:40 PM..." AND "ANONYMOUS...7:52 PM..."

Q: "[I]s reading a newspaper to tough for you[, G]ale?"

A: Not at all I do it all the time, several times on the average day, especially if you count on-line articles that I've searched-out on the internet.

Then the first comment maker makes this statement: "Golden is not mentioned in any article." Now, of course that is both a case of setting up a straw man and a begging of some of the issues raised in my main post above. First, I never even suggested that Marty Golden was mentioned in any newspaper articles; and if you read the quoted material from the the NY Times and the NY Post, you would see what I was actually saying was contained within the cited material.

Then the first comment maker makes what appears is intended to be an accusation: "[J]ust keep making stuff up"; however, since it is completely lacking any recognizable syntax, I am forced to guess. If it is an accusation, then it is completely false, nothing that I posted is made up [if there is any doubt about that -- clearly say what it might be in a follow-up comment, and I will address it].

The second commenter (Although it might well be the case, I won't assume both comments were posted by the same anonymous comment maker.) posted another syntax-challenged comment. The first problem is that it appears to be a compound thought written to appear as two separate sentences, as follows: "The New [Y]ork [T]imes article I read was about misconduct by the US Attorney. But I guess it was really about Marty Golden." Well, since I don't know what NY Times article the second commenter is talking about, I can't tell whether he intends to be taken literally, or if he wants it to be an ironic expression of the commenter's sense of some unfairness against Golden.

In any case, I'm relatively certain that comment maker "ANONYMOUS...7:52 PM..." wasn't referring to the Times article cited by me in my post above, because the only thing in that very long and detailed article that might refer to any kind of "misconduct" by Preet Bharara was this single sentence: "... His critics have accused him of grandstanding, and say his unusually blunt public condemnations of how business is done in Albany have crossed the line for a federal prosecutor...." Whatever else it covered, the Times article cited and quoted by me was neither "... about misconduct by the US Attorney...." nor was it "...really about Marty Golden."

I hope to be able to address the relative cleanliness of Marty Golden and the teeth of various hounds, both literally and figuratively, in a later comment or post. However, it is beyond the resources of this blog to get into issues like when, where, and how Marty Golden might be "in transit" when contacted for comments by the press.

IF AT 9:45 AM ON 4/17/15 YOU GOOGLED "MARTY GOLDEN PREET BHARARA 421-A TAX GLENWOOD" --- THE TOP TWO ITEMS ON THE LIST OF LINKS WOULD HAVE BEEN TO MY POST ABOVE

Technology is sometimes amazing....Not only does my most recent post on this blog show up in the Google search, so do many of the articles from other sources that I researched to write the post. Even more interesting, there were one or two that I never had seen before.

Maybe, commenters "ANONYMOUS...7:40 PM..." AND "ANONYMOUS...7:52 PM..." need to read some of those links; and they would see how I am not making anything up (See [https://www.google.com/search?q=Marty+Golden+Preet+Bharara+421-a+Tax+Glenwood&oq=Marty+Golden+Preet+Bharara+421-a+Tax+Glenwood&aqs=chrome..69i57.20419j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#q=MARTY+GOLDEN+PREET+BHARARA+421-A+TAX+GLENWOOD]).

DO TO A SPECIAL GRANT, ON A ONE-OFF BASIS, I WILL BE ABLE TO FOLLOW-UP ON A "MARTY GOLDEN IN TRANSIT" ITEM

THE COMMENTER "ANONYMOUS... APRIL 16, 2015 AT 10:13 PM" IS CORRECT THAT THERE WAS A CAPITAL NEW YORK CONTACT WITH MARTY GOLDEN TO ASK HIM ABOUT THE NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE MENTIONED ABOVE --- MARTY GOLDEN IS REPORTED TO HAVE ANSWERED THAT HE WAS "IN TRANSIT"

>>> BUT THE BROOKLYN GOP STATE SENATOR ALSO SAID A LITTLE MORE THAN THAT <<<

In the Capitol New York article "Skelos allies quiet on investigation report," there is a report of a brief conversation with New York Republican State Senator from Brooklyn Martin Golden when Capitol New York attempted to reach him for a comment about the New York Times article mentioned in the main post above (See "Skelos allies quiet on investigation report" by Jimmy Vielkind and Josefa Velasquez, 4/16/15, Capitol New York/ capitolnewyork.com [http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2015/04/8566143/skelos-allies-quiet-investigation-report]). According to that report, "Other Republican senators either didn't return calls, declined to comment, or offered similarly terse replies [as Senator Phil Boyle].... Marty Golden, of Brooklyn, said he was in transit and asked a reporter to follow up with his office.... [And] David Laska, a spokesman for the Republican State Committee, said it was premature to talk about 'just a newspaper story.'..."

So, you see, Marty Golden not only said that he was in transit, but that his office should be contacted. The implication is that Marty Golden's office would be in a position to give a comment about the substance of the New York Times article.

So far there has been no report as to what Marty Golden's office or anybody on his staff had to say about the New York Times article. Unless, commenter "Anonymous... April 16, 2015 at 7:52 PM " happened to have been a Golden staffer. If that was the case, that "staffer" said the New York Times article that he read was "... about misconduct by the US Attorney....." and "... I guess it was really about Marty Golden...."

Maybe, that comment and the identity of the commenter need to be looked into a little further.

Gail, I'm glad to see that you and your blog have climbed the charts with your Marty Golden coverage.

Believe it or not it helps make the local papers a little more honest and critical of our one and only Brooklyn GOP State Senator.

You also have pointed out why Marty Golden is our one and only local GOP State Senator; because that's the way Dean Skelos, Marty Golden and Jerry Kassar wanted it. So they got together to screw the only other Brooklyn GOP State Senator David Storobin and give that seat to a Democrat.

in all newspaper accounts of skelos the only mention of Golden is on a blog when golden failed to comment.No comment is not a crime. Not one allegation against senator golden exists except from the malcontented freaks that troll this blog.

When several politicians get subpoenas in connection with a certain case, and a certain politician in the same class or category of politician doesn't get one, that probably means something....

That's especially true when additional categories like 421-a tax breaks and certain named developers and companies are added into the prosecutor's mix and there's still no subpoena for a certain politician.

So, the question still is this: Did Marty Golden get a subpoena in the Skelos thing or not ?

Why the melodrama ? Simple irony would have been something more like "... marty goes off in hand-cuffs." or '... marty is put behind bars." or "... marty is forced to leave his beloved Bay Ridge in disgrace."

What I think is really preying on you is the thought, "i guess the next step is marty's staff gets the death penalty."

One thing that could get Marty Golden into trouble is his use of Campaign money to pay for his private dues membership at the exclusive Fort Orange Club up in Albany. According to the Board of Elections, only two elected officials - Marty Golden and Dean Skelos - currently pay for their memberships to this exclusive (and somewhat sexist) private club using election money. NY campaign finance laws prohibit that. Also, I have heard (yes, I know it is hearsay) that Marty Golden is being looked at for funneling money to the Local GOP Committee and having them pay his bills and then he allegedly re-imburses the committee. I do not think that this is ethical. It seems to be a form of money laundering but perhaps that is too harsh a word. I forget who runs the Brooklyn GOP Committee. I think it is either Eaton or Kasser. Sometimes they just morph into one. But in any event, it could pose a problem for Marty. The monthly dues that Marty spent on membership to the private (and somewhat sexist - I say that because they only recently have permitted women to wear pants in the dining area) club is two hundred dollars. This means he pays over 2,000 a year from his election/campaign money to the club. Since it is only Marty and Dean who have been brazen enough to do this (no other Albany pol does this) perhaps it triggered these investigations of these two. But that is purely conjecture - although the rest of my comment above is fact driven.

Hills might be stopping at her Brooklyn head quarters on Thursday! I mean really, can Brooklyn get anymore beautiful on these Spring days?????

About Me

I formerly have commented on various political blogs concerning Republican politics. Although the focus of my political commentary has been on the Brooklyn GOP and other aspects of politics in Brooklyn, I have also posted commentary about national matters.
If you wish to contact Galewyn Massey directly, please, Email to galewynmasban@gmail.com